Commitments and Contingencies

3 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2019

Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]

17. Commitments and Contingencies

Adient is involved in various lawsuits, claims and proceedings incident to the operation of its businesses, including those pertaining to product liability, casualty environmental, safety and health, intellectual property, employment, commercial and contractual matters, and various other matters. Although the outcome of any such lawsuit, claim or proceeding cannot be predicted with certainty and some may be disposed of unfavorably to Adient, it is management's opinion that none of these will have a material adverse effect on Adient's financial position, results of operations or cash flows. Costs related to such matters were not material to the periods presented.

Adient accrues for potential environmental liabilities when it is probable a liability has been incurred and the amount of the liability is reasonably estimable. Reserves for environmental liabilities totaled $11 million and $12 million at December 31, 2019 and September 30, 2019, respectively. Adient reviews the status of its environmental sites on a quarterly basis and adjusts its reserves accordingly. Such potential liabilities accrued by Adient do not take into consideration possible recoveries of future insurance proceeds. They do, however, take into account the likely share other parties will bear at remediation sites. It is difficult to estimate Adient's ultimate level of liability at many remediation sites due to the large number of other parties that may be involved, the complexity of determining the relative liability among those parties, the uncertainty as to the nature and scope of the investigations and remediation to be conducted, the uncertainty in the application of law and risk assessment, the various choices and costs associated with diverse technologies that may be used in corrective actions at the sites, and the often quite lengthy periods over which eventual remediation may occur. Nevertheless, Adient does not currently believe that any claims, penalties or costs in connection with known environmental matters will have a material adverse effect on Adient's financial position, results of operations or cash flows.